LG 37LH7000 37in LCD TV - LG 37LH7000

Summary

Our Score

8/10

User Score

Review Price free/subscription

More good news with the 37LH7000 concerns both its colour and black level response. With colours, in particular, the set is quite outstanding, combining extremely vibrant saturations with tones that are subtle in blend and authentic enough to suggest that the TV enjoys an unusually wide colour palette.

As for black levels, they seem just that bit more deep and authentic on this screen than on other recent LG models I've seen. All I would say is that you do have to calibrate the TV's settings quite carefully to fully appreciate this - or, if you're too impatient for that, you can also get a pretty convincing black level effect simply by choosing the Cinema preset, which reduces the backlight output to 30%.

While we're on the subject of the backlight, it's a relief to report that the 37LH7000's backlight level seems totally uniform across the screen, with none of the distracting unevenness seen with a few recent LCD TVs.

Another important element in the 37LH7000's black level success is its ability to reproduce a decent amount of shadow detail in an image's darkest corners, a fact that enables the TV to reproduce dark scenes with a good sense of depth.

While the 37LH7000's black levels are very good, though, I'm duty bound to report that they're not entirely perfect. For as with all LG LCDs, during very dark scenes a slightly bluish cloud can hang over proceedings. But this only becomes distractingly obvious on very rare occasions.

As for the TruMotion 100Hz glitches I mentioned, if you use the mid or high level settings of the system you can see some pretty major shimmering around large moving objects, and some occasionally quite overt flickering when the processing has to keep up with something moving really quickly. But so long as you keep the TruMotion 100Hz system set to low, the worst side effect you'll probably see is a momentarily staccato look to some very rapid horizontal movements. No big deal in the context of the greater benefits the system brings.

The 37LH7000's audio isn't as scintillating as its video. For while the set can deliver a wide soundstage and some exceptional clarity when it comes to treble effects, the treble emphasis is rather too obvious, leaving loud scenes sometimes sounding harsh and sibilant. At least part of this is also down to the TV not producing enough low bass to counterpoint its trebles. On the upside, vocals are always clear, and despite the shortage of bass, the mid-range has enough breathing room to open up at least a little when a film shifts gear from a quiet chat to a full-blown explosion-fuelled action scene.

Verdict

The LG 37LH7000 isn't quite perfect enough in the picture or audio departments for us to award it a full-blown TrustedReviews Recommended award. But it's definitely a winner when it comes to that most important of factors in these cash-strapped times, value.